Fenton turns 5

Fenton turned 5 on June 26th.  It was a busy day for us so sadly we didn't do a lot but Grampa Moss was able to come over and eat dinner (hot dogs and pancakes) and have bubble gum ice cream cake.  Fenton was soooo excited to get new toys and his brothers had picked them out so that made it even better.  I thought I would share a few things about Fenton at age 5.  He WANTS everything.  He gets in trouble frequently because he wants everything.  I think it is really funny when he starts asking me for things like jet packs or cameleons that will turn into tanks and really weird and random stuff like that.  Fenton loves Hot Dogs and Pancakes.  Whenever you ask him what he wants to eat it is usually one of those two things.  Fenton thinks that he is a pretty big boy and will try just about any CRAZY thing that you ask him to. Fenton loves to make Griffin happy.  He is also a bit of a clown and will do anything over and over again if it will make people laugh (that includes hurting himself).  Fenton is a pretty fun boy to have around and we are glad that he is a part of our family.

Horses

Another one of the highlights from my family reunion was riding horses.  Most of my kids have never been on a horse before and those that have haven't been on one for 5 or 6 years.  In spite of all of that my kids LOVED it.  So much so that they keep asking Alex and I when we are going to get a horse. Thanks Ray and Kori for taking the time to bring your horses to the park for my kids to enjoy.

Griffin

Griffin was very excited this week when we put training wheels back on the little bike so that he could ride it.  He caught on to pedaling pretty quick and now we can't get him off of it. 

Swimming Lessons

This week my kids started swimming lessons.  We have been traveling to Garden City for them because the pool here in Montpelier isn't open.  It is a long day for all of us because we leave the house at 8:15 in the morning and don't get home until 1pm.  If you ask the kids they will tell you that they don't like swimming lessons but when they are in the water you would never guess that.  It is just that we are gone for so long and a lot of their time is spent waiting not swimming. Their swimming instructor is much harder on them than the teachers they have had in the past.  They don't enjoy that but I sure do.  They are really learning a lot and she is doing a lot of life saving things with them like what to do if they fall in the water or if someone else falls in the water.  They have all improved so much in just 1 week.  It will be fun to see how much more they improve over the next week. 

 Fenton has never had any fear of the water so it was great to get him in swimming lessons so that he could learn how to actually swim and not just think that he could.  He is kind of crazy in his class and they have to keep an eye on him or he will try swimming the length of the pool.

 Anika was scared to death of the water on Monday.  Her teacher made here put her face in the water which she didn't like doing.  But by Thursday she was having contests with Fenton to see who could hold their breath under the water the longest.  Now that she is over her fear of the water hopefully she will learn to really swim this week.

 Ethan started the week knowing how to swim but just enough to survive.  He has been learning how to have better breath control so that he doesn't come up out of the water gasping for air.  He has also been learning better swimming technique so that he isn't just doggy paddling.

Dalton is a pretty good swimmer and wasn't sure if he wanted to take swimming lessons.  He was afraid that they were just going to work on crazy diving and things that he would never use.  She has been working a lot with him on technique and getting faster with his swimming.  He comes away from swimming lessons exhausted but he is definitely improving.  On Thursday she even started showing them the butterfly stroke. 

Magic Tree House

This year at my family reunion Aunt Becky put together a great activity for all of the kids.  It was loosely based on some of the Magic Tree House books.  The kids got to ride horses in the wild west.  Be pirates and search for treasure.  Listen to family history in a tree house.  And go searching for bugs in the Amazon.  It was a lot of fun and we need to send out a big THANK YOU to Aunt Becky for putting it on.

 Riding horses

 

Reading the map to find the buried treasure

 The Treasure

 Aunt Carla telling stories

Jumping off the paddle boats in the Amazon

Meadow Hot Springs

For those of you who don't know there is a really neat Hot Springs near Meadow.  Alex has stopped to swim there before but we have never been able to make it as a family.  The weekend before the 4th of July while we were heading home from a family reunion at my Mom's house we were able to stop and go for a little swim.  There are 3 different hot pools and each of them is a little different.  The kids all had a great time swimming and playing in the water.

Dalton doing his cool light saber moves

Fenton just loved swimming

This is a happy face I promise

Anika still doesn't like to spend much time in the water.  She just hung on the edge.

I think he was doing a backflip

Ethan trying to land on the rope

I'm sorry that I have been absent in the Blogger world lately.  I am going to be better about it because I use it as my journal and need to start journaling my families memories again before I forget what happened.  Rather than trying to catch-up I am going to just start with my most recent pictures and if I have time I will throw in some of the older pictures that I haven't blogged in the last 9 months.